In telephone systems used in controlled-environment facilities, such as a prison, jail, detention facility, or hospital, a resident or inmate is often unable to pay for outbound telephone calls due to insufficient funds or a lack of an account for the telephone system. Therefore, the resident's outbound calls must be charged to the called party, to a third party, or to an external account, such as a prepaid account. Many outbound calls from such facilities are not completed because funding for the call cannot be established by either the called party or the calling party. For example, calls may not be completed when the called number does not have sufficient funds, has reached its threshold of completed calls, the calling or called party does not have a prepaid account, the called party has a reached a credit limit, or if no billing arrangement is in place between the service provider hosting the calling party's telephone and the service provider hosting the called party's telephone.
It is estimated that as many as fifty percent of outbound calls from controlled-environment facilities are not completed for such reasons. Typically, these calls fail without any notice being provided to the called party regarding the call attempt and without offering alternative payment options to the called or calling parties. As a result, inmates tend to stay in jail longer without being able to make contact with their called party and significant revenue opportunities associated with the failed calls are lost.